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Bentham Project wins major international fellowship

A law lecturer from the University of Peking is to spend two years at UCL Laws, which has secured a major fellowship grant.

The Bentham Project, the Faculty of Laws team devoted to the work of utilitarian social reformer Jeremy Bentham, has won a prestigious Newton International Fellowship.

Dr Xiaobo Zhai, a lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Peking’s Law School, will join the project in June 2009 to work on Bentham’s constitutional theory, in particular his writings on representative democracy. He will be hosted during his time at UCL by Professor Philip Schofield, Professor of the History of Legal and Political Thought at UCL Laws.

Professor Schofield said: ‘Jeremy Bentham regarded himself as a "citizen of the world", and invented the word "international". He would have been delighted at the prospect of his ideas having an impact in twenty-first century China. I’m looking forward to this exciting collaboration with such an outstanding young scholar.’

The scheme, run by the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society, provides annual grants of £24,000 as part of a long-term goal to build a global pool of research leaders and foster international collaboration with the UK.

The fellowship covers the broad range of natural and social sciences, engineering and the humanities.

About UCL LawsUCL Laws position as a world-leading law school was confirmed in December by its ranking in the UK government 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. The faculty was placed joint first in the UK for the proportion of its research activity in the top two star categories (75% 4*/3*).

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